The Forgotten Branch
by Ambrosia Ice
Summary: When Harry Potter is killed he's given two simple choices: travel to the past and assume the identity of his unknown cousin or continue onto the afterlife for whatever destiny awaited him. Fem!HarryxFred.Time Travel. AU


_The war had its lasting effects on every, especially the boy-who-lived. It wasn't just his schooling that caused him to develop PTSD and become paranoid about everything. _

It was a few years after the war. Losing the one person who had been apart of the world longer than he that also happened to be his cousin, had scarred him.

He tried to fight against every instinct that said he _had_ to fight whenever he and Ginny got in a brawl. She had just given birth to their first child, a boy, whom was named after both their fathers, who had perished at some point in the two and a half decade war.

Arthur James Potter. Their son was the only thing that could calm him, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be around, he didn't want to be the cause of Ginny or Arthur's pain.

There were a few bad things about having moved to America once the war was over and the only one one that matter was that guns were allowed, to be owned by anyone, who had a permit and was at least eighteen.

The echo of the fire rang in his ears and for a few seconds he just stood where he was. In a muggle bank he'd thought it was one of the last places Death Eaters would look for him.

He was wrong. Clearly. He tried forcing himself to focus. These people needed help. They needed a protector. His schooling flashed before his eyes.

All the dark experiences he'd had, the close calls with Death himself…

As his memories started to slow down he felt himself falling. Felt his head hit a counter and then hit the floor.

Like that, Harry's pain was gone. Forcing his eyes opened, he flinched back at the light. Instantly recognizing the place as Kings Cross. His eyes darted around before landing on Jasmine and someone he didn't recognize. The woman next to Jasmine looked like they could have been twins. It didn't make sense to him; he'd known Jasmine his whole life.

They had the same hair as Jasmine; the same eyes, skintone, posture. Everything about them screamed sisters, twins, and he couldn't figure out her name.

How could they be twins if he didn't even know the name of the woman?

He remembered snippets of her and Jasmine together, but he hadn't seen her in so long; since he was six, specifically.

The both had sad eyes as they made their way over to him. "It wasn't your time, dear cousin." Jasmine said as she crested his face. "You had years, decades, ahead of you." she looked like she was going to cry.

"you… don't remember me, much of me anyways. I was, am, Jasmine's twin sister. My name is Rosemary." she held out a hand and he took it.

"You have two choices, Harry. You can continue on, to where destiny wants you to go… or you can go back, try and change things that should never have happened."

Harry swallowed. He knew he didn't want to die, and he felt bad for his cousin who had never gotten to live, but did he was to try and prevent things from happening that had snapped who he was?

It didn't take much thinking. He nodded his head once, "I'll do my best to change whatever hadn't had to happen."

With a single nod both girls remained silent. "Go through the wall and onto the Hogwarts express; it'll take you where you need to go."

"You'll see us soon, dear cousin."

Harry figured they meant he'd see their younger selves; but the child, living, version of them wouldn't know a thing about the conversation they'd had, hopefully never would have.

As he crossed into the hidden platform, subtle pain pulled as his body, as if preparing for the travel back in time.

The twenty-four year old boarded the train and white, hot, pain forced him to stumbled into the nearest compartment.

His body was shifting, his hair was growing out, his _magic_ was changing; that was all he could tell.

Harry's body was shrinking, almost as if to fit into someone much younger than he, much smaller. He could hear a scream and though it was higher in pitch and sounded feminine, he realised it was coming from him , _her_ now.

He knew no more after that realisation.

**XxXxXxX **

_**1987**_

"Julia!" a voice snapped, scaring Harry awake. He forced his eyes open to see a stern glare of someone who had better thing to do than wait for him to wake up.

Julia. Was that whoever he'd take place of? Was that his name now? Deciding to just go with it now, he forced a sleepy "_yes, Ma'am?_" in response to the lady who seemed much worse than his Aunt had ever been.

"You and your damn freaky nature are being taken away from her. I never want to see you again."

That woke him up completely and he found himself nodding.

"be ready to leave in ten minutes." The Marton hissed before turning and slamming the door grumbling about 'damn orphans' and 'freaks like her should be locked away'.

He stiffened as he forced himself out of bed and realised there was a reason he had his own room in a place where every child crammed into the same room, if they could fit enough semi-decent bunk beds.

This girl, whoever she was, was dark. Not dark, persay, but scared. Bitter. Angry. Probably moreso than he had ever been.

Everything about this room screamed _leave me alone_ and _I don't need anyone_. He'd guess she was about eight, and had an excellent grip on her magic, only leaking some magic to keep everyone away from her, not enough to realise what she was, of course.

Harry seemed to not have much control, not at this point in time. He wondered if he had to accept that _he_ was now a _she_ due to his current form.

He was sure she hadn't even known what she was, he was sure this girl had died somehow, before he'd even had a choice to come back. He was sure she shouldn't've survived whatever had twisted her into a cold child.

As the body packed her stuff, got dressed, and grabbed whatever she deemed valuable (like the locket she only took off so it could get cleaned; or the stuffed animals that reminded her of a childhood she _could_ have had.

He glanced into the mirror and saw dark brown hair and cold grey eyes.

Harry wasn't sure at what point he'd stopped thinking of himself as a _he_ and instead, just for simplicity sake, started referring to himself as a _her_. _Her_self.

When she saw Dumbledore she couldn't smile. The part of her that was, and always will be, Harry wanted to jump up and down with joy at seeing her old headmaster.

She'd change history. She would.

"Who are you?" she asked with narrowed eyes. Her tone was icy, her posture rigid.

"you're greatgrandfather, of course." he said with a lazy grin.

She was suspicious, if he was really her blood then why hadn't he found her almost three years ago _after_ the murder of her parents? She bit her tongue though. She wanted answers, yes, but she wanted to get out of the Orphanage.

It had been Hell from day one. When she'd first come, her memories of the murder where crystal-clear but the moments leading up and the week after where all blurry.

She clenched her jaw, showing him just how much she really believed him.

"she's a problem child, that one. Has been since the first week she was here. You be careful around her." The Marton warned Dumbledore.

"She'll be a right angle once we get her home. We've been worried sick about her."

Liar. He was only here because the Ministry demanded him to take her out of the Muggle Orphanage because of her magic and circumstances.

That seemed to be enough for the horrid lady. She was all too eager to sign away the problem child. Of course, maybe Dumbledore just had to sign a few papers and the lady wouldn't have done anything to make sure the girl that had been under her care for three years was going to be at the very least in a stable home.

She didn't actually see him sign anything and she was pretty sure he hadn't. He probably Obliviated everyone about 'Julia Evans', that the girl had never been in the system.

"Where are we going?" Julia asked as they walked out of the building.

"To your Aunt and Uncle. You sister's are already there- they've been worried sick that you'd been killed along with your parents."

That seemed to bring her closer to a snapping point. Where was her bloody family when she'd needed them? When she'd been hurting and needed someone she was familiar with? They wanted her? Well, she didn't want them!

She didn't want share one moment more with them. She was eight, almost nine. They were eleven, or soon to be. She couldn't remember when their birthday was, not the exact date; it was sometime in March, that much she knew. They'd be leaving her _again_ by September. It didn't matter that it was almost exactly eight months! She'd be going herself in a few years, surely they could meet each other again _then_!

Trying to get a reign on her emotions, Julia took a calming breath and tried to smother the fire in the pit of her stomach before glancing back at the Headmaster.

"I only had one Aunt and Uncle." she stated bluntly. "Aunt Lily and Uncle James, and they were killed three years _before_ mine where."

The old man shook his head. "Your father had another sister, Petunia, who wasn't Blessed with the magic her older brother and younger sister werewere blessed with."

The girl sneered. "Then I don't want to live with them."

It was at this point when Harry could calm the girl down. Though Harry's spirit was keeping her alive, the mind and body didn't take heed of her experience, her knowledge of the future.

Dumbledore looked at her strangely. "weather you want to or not, that's where your going." he said it like it was final.

Julia

As soon as they were out of sight of any prying muggle eyes, he grabbed her arm and apparated to Surry.

Julia ripped her arm away from Dumbledore, shooting him a glare that should have, could have, made him die then and there but some part of her was holding her back. So, she settled for storming away, the first show that she was actually a kid and not something else.

"You're going the wrong way, dear child." He sighed.

"I know where I'm going!" she spat before going up to number four; not pausing to think about how she knew. Suddenly, all the anger, all the bitterness, faded away to fear. What if she was a disappointment to her sisters, what if her aunt and uncle hated her for being in an Orphanage for the past four years?

Something told her they wouldn't hate her because she lived in an orphanage, but because she's a witch.

She glanced back at the spot where Dumbledore had been and inwardly cringed when she saw he wasn't there. Swallowing her nerves and fear, she knocked gently on the door and waited silently as someone came to the door.

**A/N:**

**For those of you confused; the mind and body have to fully accept outside soul of Harry's. For the most part Julia's personality is dominant. Harry's will kind of act like a balance so her emotions will be more stable at time progresses and they learn how to rely on eachother**

**Also I don't own one bit of Harry Potter. Only the character names you don't recognize;)**


End file.
